The war was over, the players were (mostly) back, and things got back to normal. The Red Sox stormed their way to a pennant, their first since 1918. The Sox won 104 games, while Detroit won 92 and New York won 87. Everyone else was under .500, Washington, Chicago, Cleveland and St. Louis, with Philadelphia losing 105 games. Rosters carried up to 29 players, to help catch the overflow of war heroes and sort things out.
Mickey Vernon won the batting title at .353, with Ted Williams at .342. Williams led in on-base, slugging, and of course OPS. He also led with 142 runs. Johnny Pesky had 208 hits to Vernon's 207. Vernon had 51 doubles to Stan Spence's 50. Hank Edwards had 16 triples. Hank Greenberg led with 44 homers and 127 RBI, with Williams second in both categories. George Case led with 28 steals.
Hal Newhouser led pitchers with a 1.94 ERA, followed by Spud Chandler at 2.10. Newhouser and Bob Feller tied with 26 wins. Dave "Boo" Ferris was right behind at 25. Feller led with 348 strikeouts, setting a modern record that would stand until Nolan Ryan came along. Bob Klinger led with 9 saves.
Win Shares leaders, players; Ted Williams (Boston) 49, Johnny Pesky (Boston) 34, Mickey Vernon (Washington) 33, Hank Greenberg (Detroit) and Charlie Keller (New York) 31, Stan Spence (Washington) 30, Bobby Doerr (Boston) 27, Dom DiMaggio (Boston) and Luke Appling (Chicago) 26, Roy Cullenbine (Detroit) 25, Lou Boudreau (Cleveland), Joe DiMaggio (New York) and Buddy Lewis (Washington) 24.
Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Hal Newhouser (Detroit) 33, Bob Feller (Cleveland) 32, Dizzy Trout (Detroit) 27, Tex Hughson (Boston) and Spud Chandler (New York) 25, Boo Ferriss (Boston) 23, Bill Bevens (New York) 21, Ed Lopat (Chicago) and Fred Hutchinson (Detroit) 19, Mickey Haefner (Washington) 17.
WARP3 scores: Williams 11.8, Pesky 6.9, Greenberg 6.6 (last big year), Keller 5.8 (last year as regular), Vernon, Doerr, and Appling 5.3, Cullenbine 5.2, J. DiMaggio 4.8, Spence and D. DiMaggio 4.5, George Kell (Philadelphia/Detroit) 4.1.
Pitchers, Feller 10.1, Newhouser 9.0, Trout 7.2, Hughson 6.6, Chandler 6.5, Bevens 5.9, Ferriss and Bobo Newsom (Philadelphia/Washington) 4.3, Lopat 4.2, Haefner 4.1, Virgil Trucks (Detroit) and Jesse Flores (Philadelphia) 3.9, Hutchinson 3.8.
WAR (fWAR), position players: Williams 12.4, Greenberg 7.8, Pesky 7.6, Keller 7.3, Appling 6.6, Doerr 6.5, Vernon 6.4, J. DiMaggio 5.8, Spence 5.6, D. DiMaggio 5.3, Kell 4.8, Boudreau and Edwards 4.5. Pitchers (bWAR): Feller 10.1, Newhouser 9.0, Trout 7.2, Hughson 6.6, Chandler 6.5, Bevens 5.9, Ferriss and Newsom 4.3, Lopat 4.2, Haefner 4.1, Flores and Trucks 3.9.
Actual award voting: MVP (top 15):
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+----+---+-----+-----+
1 Ted Williams BOS 9 224 336 0.67 | 514 176 38 .342 1.164 0
2 Hal Newhouser DET 3 197 336 0.59 | 103 13 2 .126 .388 1| 26-9 293 1.94 1.069 275 1
3 Bobby Doerr BOS 5 158 336 0.47 | 583 158 18 .271 .799 5
4 Johnny Pesky BOS 2 141 336 0.42 | 621 208 2 .335 .827 9
5 Mickey Vernon WSH 1 134 336 0.40 | 587 207 8 .353 .910 14
6 Bob Feller CLE 1 105 336 0.31 | 124 16 0 .129 .341 0| 26-15 371 2.18 1.158 348 4
7 Dave Ferriss BOS 1 94 336 0.28 | 115 24 0 .209 .503 0| 25-6 274 3.25 1.259 106 3
8 Hank Greenberg DET 2 91 336 0.27 | 523 145 44 .277 .977 5
9 Dom DiMaggio BOS 0 56 336 0.17 | 534 169 7 .316 .820 10
10 Lou Boudreau CLE 0 37 336 0.11 | 515 151 6 .293 .755 6
11 Rudy York BOS 0 28 336 0.08 | 579 160 17 .276 .808 3
12 Luke Appling CHW 0 26 336 0.08 | 582 180 1 .309 .762 6
13 Tex Hughson BOS 0 19 336 0.06 | 91 12 0 .132 .345 0| 20-11 278 2.75 1.090 172 3
14 Earl Caldwell CHW 0 18 336 0.05 | 18 3 0 .167 .514 0| 13-4 91 2.08 0.981 42 8
15 Charlie Keller NYY 0 17 336 0.05 | 538 148 30 .275 .938 1
Top Player: Ted Williams. This one isn't really close, although Pesky, Doerr and DiMaggio had standout seasons as well for the Bosox. Joe D. was hurt part of the year, Vernon was the batting titlist, but none could match the contributions of the Splendid Splinter. The amazing thing is that he was not a unanimous choice. That only speaks to an irrational hatred on the part of several writers.
#1 Ted Williams, #2 Pesky, #3 Greenberg, #4 Keller, #5 Vernon, #6 Doerr.
Top pitcher: Bob Feller, setting a new single-season strikeout record. Hal Newhouser was also terrific, with the same number of wins and a slightly lower ERA, but Feller's 348 K set a new standard for excellence.
#1 Feller, #2 Newhouser, #3 Trout, #4 Hughson, #5 Chandler.
Top rookie: Ellis Kinder, 3-3, 3.32 ERA for St. Louis. Not a good year for rookies, with all the returning talent around.
Top manager: Joe Cronin brought the Red Sox home with one of their best pitching staffs ever, and a balanced offense led by Williams.
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